Child Neglect

Your March 8 article on non-payment of child support was excellent and accurately reflected what is really happening. Withholding child support is an invisible method of child abuse. Paying child support is a moral and legal obligation to children. What good are laws or court orders if they aren`t being enforced by the courts? Where children are concerned, there should be no leniency. These deadbeats need to be publicly humiliated and incarcerated.

By Tim Ghianni NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb 7 (Reuters) - A couple charged with murder by forcing their 5-year-old girl to chug as a punishment what turned out to be a lethal amount of grape soda and water, was arraigned in an east Tennessee court on Friday and did not enter pleas. The girl's father, Randall Vaughn, and his wife, Mary - the child's stepmother - have been charged with her murder through a massive fluid intake that caused her brain to...

The mother of a 7-month-old baby found in an abandoned building Sunday has been charged with misdemeanor child neglect and released on bond, officials said. The baby was discovered before noon Sunday in a vacant building at 61 W. 112th Pl. after a resident reported hearing the child crying, according to Pullman District Sgt. Mary Bernichio. Rose Jordan, 28, of 25 W. 112 St., was arrested after she returned to the building, where police were investigating, Bernichio said. She was charged...

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Deputies have arrested a Florida woman whose 14-year-old daughter was charged earlier this week with maliciously harassing another young girl who jumped off a tower to her death. Vivian Vosburg, 30, of Lakeland, Florida, was charged with two counts of child abuse with bodily harm and four counts of child neglect, the Polk County Sheriff said. The charges were unrelated to the arrest of Vosburg's daughter, the sheriff's office...

A Naperville woman who left her child alone in a parked car while she gambled aboard an Aurora riverboat in May was sentenced Friday to 30 days in the Kane County Jail immediately and to weekends thereafter for the rest of 1994. The sentence was handed down by Kane County Judge Judith Brawka in the Aurora branch court after she found Sherry Stackowski, 26, guilty of contributing to the delinquency and neglect of a minor. Brawka said she found "incredible" Stackowski's tale...

Heat stroke deaths like the one Friday involving a 20-month-old Burbank boy who was left in a hot vehicle are rare, statistics suggest, but child-safety and health experts say they underscore the steps parents can take to prevent them. Police said Ivan Villa died Friday after being inadvertently left in his family's car for 21/2 hours in 90-plus degree weather. His death was ruled a homicide caused by heat stroke and child neglect, but no charges were filed...

Relatives recall Gizzell Kiara Ford as a smart, mature and respectful 8-year-old girl. Prosecutors said today her grandmother, Helen M. Ford, 51, of the 5200 block of West Adams Street, inflicted so many injuries on the girl over a long enough period and neglected her so badly that before she died Friday, Gizzell had maggots living in a head injury that had spread to another part of her scalp. Ford cried today as prosecutors detailed the girl's...

The death of an 8-year-old girl was ruled a homicide this afternoon after an autopsy revealed the girl had died from strangulation and blunt trauma, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Gizzell Ford of the 5200 block of West Adams Street was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. Friday at her home in the city's Austin neighborhood, according to the medical examiner's office. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was strangulation and injuries from multiple blunt...

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Cuba allowed U.S. authorities to land a plane in Havana and retrieve an American couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and sailing to the communist island with them, Florida officials said. The plane returned to Tampa, Florida, early on Wednesday with Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife, Sharyn Hakken, and their sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. The parents, who had lost...

An Elgin man was sentenced to 40 days in the Kane County jail after pleading guilty to animal neglect charges Tuesday. Robert A. Shilling, 38, was one of four adults charged after authorities found them living with nine dogs and two young children in unsanitary conditions at a house in the 600 block of Lavoie Avenue. As part of a negotiated plea, Shilling agreed to forfeit ownership of seven of the dogs. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of...

A Southwest Side boy found fatally beaten on his fourth birthday had been abused repeatedly by his mother and her boyfriend, who used makeup to conceal the child's bruises, prosecutors said Monday. Cesar Ruiz, 34, and Crystal Valdez, 28, were each charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide in the death of Valdez's son, Christopher. Bail was set at $2.5 million for Ruiz and $750,000 for Valdez by Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. Valdez bowed her head...

When Illinois facilities that care for disabled people hire new staff, they are required to conduct criminal background checks. For most applicants, licenses must be verified. But many facilities don't have to check whether new hires have ever been cited for abusing children — either their own kids or those living in care centers. That may soon change as a state panel on Tuesday expressed support for expanding background checks for workers...